By Verna Davis
TERRE HAUTE — A couple of weeks ago, I got an e-mail from a college friend. We’ve been chatting via e-mail for a couple of weeks. We hadn’t spoken for quite a few years and had lots of things to catch up on regarding each other’s lives. It was nice hearing from her but she did have one piece of news that was quite disturbing to her. Some people in her church strongly disagreed with some other people in her church and the result was painful. The church had split in two factions, some members going one way, some going another, and some not going anywhere at all. I asked her what had caused the split and I could feel her pain in her response: “It was basically a difference in worship styles and then it got ugly. People were calling each other names and shouting at each other in the parking lot. Some people even refuse to speak to others when they see them around town.”
Unfortunately, what happened to my friend’s church is not all that uncommon. I’ve heard of churches fighting and even splitting in two because one group doesn’t like the same music as another group, or some don’t like the minister and think if they get enough people to leave, the minister will leave as well. There have been church arguments and disagreements causing hard feelings and harsh words over the color of the carpet, whether the church should have pews or chairs, hymn books or projected words on a screen, pianos or guitars, worship choruses or hymns, Sunday School before or after worship — or maybe not even have Sunday School at all.
It’s a big mess, isn’t it?
Church fights and splits are nothing new. Remember when Jesus went through Samaria, the dwelling place of the descendants of a major split from the Jews? When the Israelites were captured, they were also scattered throughout Babylonia and Assyria. Some of the Jews chose to intermarry with their captors and lost their identity. They settled in what became the nation of Samaria. Then, when the Israelites returned to Jerusalem to rebuild their nation and the Temple of God, the Samaritans wanted to join the Israelites. But the Israelites would have nothing of them, and the hostility of this major “church split” continued to Jesus’ day. When Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well, she said, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem,” (John 4:20). To her, the upheaval of the church split was still fresh on her mind.
Jesus told her that although the Samaritans were in error, there was a new time coming for worshipers. “Yet a time is coming and has to come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks,” (John 4:23).
And there you have the true tragedy of church fights and splits. The kind of worship the Father seeks has been overshadowed by the conflicts, disagreements, hurt feelings, harsh words and anger toward fellow Christians. Does that mean we must be tolerant of things that are in conflict with Scripture? Must we give in to incorrect doctrinal concepts in order to keep peace in the church? No. Never. But we should also never allow church splits to occur over non-Biblical matters.
But it’s a big mess, isn’t it? Anger and bitterness will take root in the hearts of some. Some will withdraw from others in the church, missing the sweet fellowship of believers who hold all things in common. And some will drift away from the church altogether, feeling that they are better off not having to deal with all the hypocrites that go to church.
Meanwhile, people all around us are hurting and searching, needing to know the saving power of Jesus Christ. Where are we who claim to know this Savior intimately? We’re fighting over some inconsequential thing, wounding the Body of Christ with church fights and church splits, and tarnishing our church’s reputation in the community.
Shame on us.
Verna Davis may be reached at vrdspeaks@yahoo.com.
